


Falling for You

by butterflybaby91



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/M, fall - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-01
Updated: 2013-09-30
Packaged: 2017-12-28 02:55:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/986833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butterflybaby91/pseuds/butterflybaby91
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack just really likes fall okay? (But that just might not be all he likes)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling for You

**First Day of Fall**

Her fists clenched tightly around the rake as Katherine fought to cool her temper, “Jack,” she muttered through gritted teeth, “Do you _have_ to jump in the leaf pile?”

She was in the middle of raking her front yard clear of leaves, after her father had decided she needed to start experiencing how “the other half lived” as he put it, and contribute more to the household through chores. Jack had, unfortunately for her, been walking down the street and proceeded to jump in her small pile, thereby ruining all her work thus far.

He smirked at her, “Sorry Kat,” she grimaced at the unappreciated nickname, “I can’t help it! I’m just so in love with fall!” he exclaimed, dramatically flinging his arms out, before collapsing in the leaves, causing several to puff up and out of their carefully arranged formation.

Katherine dropped the rake and crossed her hands over her chest, “Well go express your love for fall somewhere else,” she said angrily, “I have to finish this before my father gets home or I will never hear the end of it.” She bent to pick up the fallen rake as Jack stood up—she carefully whacked him with it and he scrambled out of the way, “Now because of you I have to start all over!” Katherine huffed, irritably stabbing at the sloppy pile Jack had left behind.

Prancing over to the wrought iron fence that surrounded the Pulitzer’s yard, Jack gave her a wry smile, “Sorry Katherine,” he offered, almost sounding genuine for a second, “It just looked so inviting.”

She threw an inquiring glance over her shoulder, hardly daring to believe that Jack, _actually_ felt badly, but then Katherine caught him smirking at her, and she glared again, not even gracing him with a reply.

Throwing herself into her task, Katherine studiously tried to ignore the aggravating boy, whom she could sense was still behind her. She had no _clue_ what he was doing, but she could feel his eyes boring into her hunched back as she struggled to stay focused on her task. She desperately wanted to see why he was still hanging around—she really did not care for spectators as she clumsily tried to maneuver the rake.

For once, Katherine was actually, _really,_ mad at Jack. She had never really done yard work before and had just been figuring out what she was doing when he interrupted her. But it was his continued presence that was annoying her even more. He always found some reason to pick on her or tease her and she really did not need any of it today, after the stressful afternoon she had had.

She fought back a shiver, pausing in her work to run her hand up her bare arm, glancing behind her as she did. To her surprise she found Jack, not watching her with that teasing glint he always had in his eyes, as she would have thought he was, but instead, he was curled up, back against the fence, his scarf pulled up around his mouth, focused intently on a pad of paper in his lap.

Katherine frowned in confusion, but not wanting to disturb him and bring his teasing reigning down on her, she turned back to her raking. She was finally getting the hang of what she was doing and by the time she thought to check on what Jack was doing, he was gone.

In his place, was a single sheet of paper, folded in half, gently flapping in the wind. She rushed to recover the sheet, before it could fly away, as she did, wondering how Jack had managed to sneak away so quietly—usually he seemed to come and go in a storm cloud of chaos and noise.

Her gasp of surprise was audible, when her eyes fell on the drawing in her hand. Jack had sketched her, to almost perfect detail, raking the leaves, her brown curls blowing in the wind. He had even caught a grimace of frustration that Katherine was sure had been all over her face all afternoon.

She stared at the picture in shock for a few minutes, heat rising to her face, as she pictured Jack studying her, trying to capture the scene he had been watching. A smile ghosted across Katherine’s face and then she shook her head, dispelling it and the warm feeling that had begun bubbling up in her stomach.

It was as she was folding the paper up to put it in her pocket that Katherine realized there was writing on the back. Flipping it over with a frown, she struggled to make out Jack’s messy scrawl, where he had written, “Have fun with the leaves and see ya tomorrow in class Ace”.

Katherine could not suppress her smile anymore at seeing that, so she just shoved the paper in her jean pocket and set about trying to finish her raking before the sunset dipped below the horizon. 


End file.
